USA: Chattahoochee Tech students work with electric-powered vehicles

Gary Teate, Regional Fleet Sales Manager for Coda, shows the 2012 Coda full electric car to students of the alternative fuels and engine performance classes at the Marietta Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College. Photo by Emily Barnes
Gary Teate, Regional Fleet Sales Manager for Coda, shows the 2012 Coda full electric car to students of the alternative fuels and engine performance classes at the Marietta Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College.
Photo by Emily Barnes
The 2012 Coda full electric car is on display to students. Photo by Emily Barnes
The 2012 Coda full electric car is on display to students.
Photo by Emily Barnes
Ian Harp, 20 of Marietta, walks around the front of the new 2012 Coda full electric car, as he and other students from the alternative fuels class look at the car at the Marietta Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College. Photo by Emily Barnes
Ian Harp, 20 of Marietta, walks around the front of the new 2012 Coda full electric car, as he and other students from the alternative fuels class look at the car at the Marietta Campus of Chattahoochee Technical College.
Photo by Emily Barnes
MARIETTA — As students took it for a test drive, the Coda electric car made barely a whisper as it pulled out of the automotive lab at Chattahoochee Technical Institute’s Marietta campus.

Unlike a Chevy Volt or Toyota Prius hybrid, the four-door Coda, which is assembled in California, is completely electric. Gary Teate, Coda Automotive’s representative in the Atlanta area, said it is also different from the Nissan Leaf because of its larger 31 kilowatt hour lithium ion phosphate battery system, which allows it to drive 125 miles without recharging. The Leaf’s battery is 24 kWh, allowing it to go up to 100 miles on a charge.

Another difference is the handful of vehicles that Coda currently produces.

“We’re not in competition with the Nissan Leaf,” he said. “We’re in competition with ourselves to produce more vehicles.”

Teate gave about 30 students in Chattahoochee Tech’s engine performance and alternative fuels class a demonstration of the Coda on Thursday. He showed them one of the car’s 324 aluminum-coated battery cells, which he said looks a bit like a liquor flask.

The car is manufactured at Coda’s plant in Benecia in northern California using about 35 percent American parts with the rest coming from Europe and Asia, including batteries from China, Teate said.

“All vehicles that are made today are what they call ‘global vehicles,’ ” he said. “It’s more American than any Ford vehicle.”

The 10 alternative fuels students got to have the Coda in their lab as part of a series of demonstrations of new car technologies. Instructor Kevin Ruby said they previously saw a propane vehicle and heard from a company that converts cars to run off compressed natural gas.
The Marietta Daily Journal – Staying current With electric powered vehicles
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